Biophysics

Program of Study

The biophysics program prepares investigators with diverse backgrounds for independent research careers in which the concepts and methods of physical science are applied to biological problems.

Owing to the interdepartmental nature of the program, research may be pursued on the Cambridge campus (including within the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Physics, and in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, or the Boston campus, including the Harvard Medical School, Division of Medical Sciences, and the 11 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.

To nurture independent, creative scientists, the first part of the program seeks both to introduce the student to the faculty members and their research directly, enabling the student to make a considered choice of research advisor, and to involve the student in the diverse areas of biophysics through laboratory as well as coursework. These first two years provides a background for the second part of the program in which the student trains to be an independent scientist by a period of intensive research, culminating in publications and the PhD degree.

Most graduates of the biophysics program at Harvard have been undergraduate majors in physics or physical chemistry, though a few have come from biology. Consequently, the course requirements for admission are flexible.

Each student’s program of graduate study is planned in consultation with a faculty advisor.

The degree program is designed for completion in a maximum of six years. The first-year training provides an introduction to five diverse areas of biophysics: structural molecular biology, cell and membrane biophysics, molecular genetics, physical biochemistry, and neurosciences.

The curriculum includes learning experiences in a laboratory environment as well as coursework.

The program is flexible, and special effort has been devoted to minimizing formal requirements.

In the first ten weeks of the fall term, faculty members associated with the biophysics program give seminars describing the current research interests of their own laboratories. Following this, a student spends six-week periods in each of three different laboratories.

To make sure that the student gains familiarity with several fields of biophysics, each of the three laboratory experiences usually are selected from a different one of the areas of biophysics listed below.

It will also be possible to work on a suitable problem in mathematical biophysics in place of one of the three laboratory rotations. For more details on this and other aspects of the program, go to the Biophysics Program Website.

Students with the MD Degree

Students who already have the MD degree will find an opportunity to improve their knowledge of basic science in either of two ways. Opportunities may be available in the several departments to engage in investigations as a research fellow under the direction of a member of the faculty. No university credit toward a degree is given for such work. Questions concerning the appointment of research fellows should be directed to the faculty members.

Under special circumstances, students who have received the MD degree may become candidates for the PhD degree in biophysics, providing their qualifications for admission are approved and providing they are prepared to fulfill the normal requirements for the degree.

Combined MD-PhD Program

Students admitted to Harvard Medical School, as candidates for the MD degree, may also apply for admission to the biophysics program in order to earn a PhD degree in biophysics. This program may be of particular interest to prospective medical students with a strong background in physics and to students enrolled in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Suggested Undergraduate Preparation

Courses in math, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry would provide an ideal background for a student’s coursework in specialized areas of biophysics. No undergraduate major would have taken all these courses in college.

Admissions

Students considering graduate work should request an application from the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Online submission of the application is encouraged; see www.gsas.harvard.edu for forms and more information.

Students should request information and an application from:

Office of Admissions and Financial Aid

Harvard University
1350 Massachusetts Avenue

Holyoke Center 350

Cambridge, MA 02138-3654

telephone: 617-495-5315, 617-495-5396
e-mail: admiss@fas.harvard.edu

The Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Participating Faculty and Their Research Interests

The following is a partial list of faculty members who will accept students for degree work in biophysics, with their special fields of research and instruction indicated. More than 60 members of the Harvard faculty are currently affiliated with the biophysics program, thesis research with other faculty members is possible by arrangement. A more complete listing is available at the Registrar’s Office.

John Assad, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology.: Molecular biology of microbial pathogenesis in plants and animals.

Frederick Michael Ausubel, Professor of Genetics.: Molecular biology of bacterial pathogenesis in plants and animals.

Howard C. Berg, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Physics.: Motile behavior of bacteria.

Stephen C. Blacklow, Associate Professor of Pathology.: Molecular basis for specificity in protein folding and protein-protein interactions.

William Hines Bossert, David B. Arnold Jr. Professor of Science.: Theoretical population and community biology, models of parasitic disease processes.

Daniel Branton, Higgins Professor of Biology.: Membrane organization and sequencing technologies using membranes and channels.

Martha L. Bulyk, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Assistant Professor of Pathology.: Functional genomics and computational methods in the study of DNA-protein interactions.

Lewis Cantley, Professor of Cell Biology.: Structural basis for specificity in eukaryotic signal transduction pathways.

James J. Chou, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: NMR spectroscopy on membrane-associated proteins and peptides.

George M. Church, Associate Professor of Genetics.: Human and microbial functional genomics, genotyping, and gene expression regulatory network models.

David E. Clapham, Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Neurobiology.: Intracellular signal transduction.

Jon C. Clardy, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: The discovery and analysis of small biologically active molecules.

Jonathan B. Cohen, Professor of Neurobiology.: Structure and function of ligand-gated ion channels.

R. John Collier, Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.: Structure and activity of bacterial toxins.

David P. Corey, Professor of Neurobiology.: Ion channels in neural cell membranes.

Bruce Demple, Professor of Toxicology.: Cellular responses to oxidative stress, repair of free radical-damaged DNA.

John Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences.: Structure, function, and development of the retina.

Michael J. Eck, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Structural studies of proteins involved in signal transduction pathways.

Thomas E. Ellenberger, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Crystallographic and biochemical studies of DNA repair, replication, and recombination enzymes.

Florian Engert, Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology.: Synaptic plasticity and neuronal networks.

Raymond Leo Erickson, Professor of Cellular and Developmental Biology.: Protein kinases, reversible protein phosphorylation.

Rachelle Gaudet, Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology.: Structural studies of the stereochemistry of signaling and transport through biological membranes.

David Golan, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Medicine.: Membrane dynamics, membrane structure, cellular adhesion.

Jene A. Golovchenko, Professor of Physics.: Experimental condensed matter physics.

Edward E. Harlow, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Tumor suppressor genes, cell cycle control.

Stephen Coplan Harrison, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Structure of viruses and viral membranes, protein-DNA interactions, X-ray diffraction.

John Woodland Hastings, Professor of Biology.: Molecular mechanisms in bioluminescent reactions and circadian rhythms.

James M. Hogle, Edward S. Harkness Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Chair, Committee on Higher Degrees in Biophysics.: Structure and function of viruses and virus-related proteins, x-ray crystallography.

David Jeruzalmi, Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology.: Structural studies of nucleo-protein assemblies.

Tomas Kirchhausen, Professor of Cell Biology.: Molecular mechanisms of membrane traffic, x-ray crystallography, chemical genetics.

Nancy Elizabeth Kleckner, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.: Chromosome metabolism in bacteria and yeast.

Roberto G. Kolter, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.: DNA protection from oxidative damage, cell-cell communication in biofilms, microbial evolution.

David R. Liu, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Amplifiable and evolvable unnatural molecules, natural molecule evolution, engineering of synthetic and biological molecules.

Jun Liu, Professor of Statistics.: Statistical theory and inference for stochastic processes: with applications to bioinformatics.

Gavin MacBeath, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Chemical biology and proteomics.

Tom P. Maniatis, Mallinckrodt Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.: Eukaryotic gene expression.

Markus Meister, Jeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.: Function of neuronal circuits.

Keith Wyatt Miller, Mallinckrodt Professor of Pharmacology.: Characterization of lipid-protein interactions, regulatory confirmation changes and molecular mechanisms of drug action on ion channels from nerve membranes using rapid kinetics and spectroscopy.

Timothy Mitchison, Professor of Cell Biology.: Cytoskeleton dynamics, mechanism of mitosis and cell locomotion, small molecule inhibitors.

Andrew W. Murray, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.: Regulation of mitosis.

Venkatesh N. Murthy, Associate Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology.: Mechanisms of synaptic transmission and plasticity.

David S. Pellman, Associate Professor of Pediatrics.: The mechanics and regulation of mitosis.

Mara Prentiss, Professor of Physics.: Exploitation of optical manipulation to measure adhesion properties, including virus cell binding.

Tom A. Rapoport, Professor of Cell Biology.: Mechanism of how proteins are transported across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.

Frederick P. Roth, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Computational molecular biology.

Gary Ruvkun, Professor of Genetics.: Genetic control of developmental timing, neurogenesis, and neural function.

Bernardo L. Sabatini, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology.: Regulation of synaptic transmission and dendritic function in the mammalian brain.

Aravinthan D. T. Samuel, Assistant Professor of Physics.: Topics in biophysics, neurobiology, and animal behavior.

Stuart Schreiber, Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Forward and reverse chemical genetics: using small molecules to explore biology.

Brian Seed, Professor of Genetics.: Genetic analysis of signal transduction in the immune system.

Eugene Shakhnovich, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Theory and experiments in protein folding and design, theory of molecular evolution, rational drug design and physical chemistry of protein-ligand interactions, theory of complex systems.

Steven E. Shoelson, Associate Professor of Medicine.: Structural and cellular biology of insulin signal transduction.

Pamela Silver, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Systems analysis of genomes, RNA and nuclear organization; cell-based screens; synthetic biology.

Timothy A. Springer, Latham Family Professor of Pathology.: Molecular biology of immune cell interactions.

Shamil R. Sunyaev, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Computational methods in genetics, genomics, and proteomics.

Jack W. Szostak, Professor of Genetics.: Directed evolution, information content and molecular function, self-replicating systems.

Gregory Verdine, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Protein-nucleic acid interactions, transcriptional regulation, x-ray crystallography.

Gerhard Wagner, Elkan Blout Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Protein and nucleic acid structure, interaction and mobility, NMR spectroscopy.

John R. Wakeley, Thomas Cabot Associate Professor of Biology.: Theoretical population genetics.

Christopher T. Walsh, Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.: Enzymatic reaction and antibiotic synthesis mechanisms.

Thomas Walz, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology.: High-resolution electron microscopy.

George Whitesides, Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Molecular pharmacology, biosurface chemistry, virology.

Wing Hung Wong, Professor of Statistics.: Microarray data: issues and challenges.

Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.: Single molecule spectroscopy and dynamics and molecular interaction and chemical dynamics in biological systems.

Gary I. Yellen, Professor of Neurobiology.: Molecular physiology of ion channels: functional motions, drug interactions, and electrophysiological mechanisms.

Xiaowei Zhuang, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Physics.: Single-molecule biophysics.